


The Other Lawnring

by Psionicmageii



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Beforan!Feferi, Beforus, Beforus AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 13:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1511624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psionicmageii/pseuds/Psionicmageii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For all of Kankri Vantas' life, he has known no different than life behind steel bars and walls, while being "culled"--at least the Beforan version--in an Imperial Culling Complex in the main Beforan Capital. He yearns however to be free of Her Imperial Condescension (HIC) and the like of confinement. With some cunning thought, Kankri begins to concoct a plan to escape his prison, using the Empress' favoritism of him to his advantage...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Lawnring

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I realize that the first chapter is sort of short, I'll try to make the chapters a bit longer as the story progresses, so please be patient. I hope you enjoy it. There will also be more characters as well than just Kankri and Beforan!Feferi (Her Imperial Condescension, AKA the Empress, etc.), later on.

A soft rhythmic ticking sounded through the relatively small cell, resting up on the wall a few feet above Kankri’s head. Glancing upward with bright crimson eyes, he noted the time shown plainly in bold numbers, watching idly as one hand moved around, counting down each second until it was time for his next meal. He wasn’t really looking forward to it and there was only about ten minutes to spare until the time that the clock reached the unfavorable hour, where he would then be escorted by imperial guards from his cell-block to a private nutrition block.

  
Normally for any other meals, Kankri was taken to a communal nutrition block with the rest of the “culled” lowbloods. However, every few days routinely like clockwork, he’d spend a mealtime with Her Imperial Condescension herself. Though just why, Kankri wasn’t certain. All he knew was for some reason, the Empress seemed to favor him, but not in any normal troll ‘favoring’ another sort of way. Instead, it was more like a master favoring one pet from another.

  
Regardless of the fact that Kankri had grown up in this facility since as long as he could remember, probably as long as wrigglerhood along with being schoolfed here, Kankri felt this treatment was below him. It all disgusted him how he and other trolls were treated and he despised being reduced to nothing but a defenseless troll—little better than a grub in the eyes of highbloods—and being trapped behind steel bars and solid walls. He yearned to one day be free of his prison, yearned to see the outside world and the ‘real’ Beforus. Though, he doubted to himself that his dream would come true.

  
Sighing, Kankri propped his head up on his hand, resting his elbow on the desk in front of him and stared up at the clock on the wall. Five minutes still remained as his mind grew anxious of seeing the Empress. He didn’t wish to see her, didn’t wish to speak again idly as he always did. It was beneath him and not to mention humiliating in ideal. Not only that, but he feared what he would say to her, whether his words be out of fear or disgust, he wasn’t sure what was going to come out of his mouth, especially with the anger for her only boiling hotter deep within him. After all, she was the reason why he couldn’t have a real life and why he was locked up. For it was her laws that trapped him in this place. She was also the reason he hadn’t had a custodian, mainly for the fact that he’d been snatched before one had really taken much of an interest of him.

  
All of this was in an effort to keep him and trolls like him ‘safe’, keeping them imprisoned throughout their lives, providing for all their needs but ones that highbloods couldn’t quite understand. Kankri yearned for freedom, wanting a better and happier life of fending for himself out in the world, than being protected behind steel and stone. It just didn’t feel fair to him, not in the slightest.

  
Listening closely then, Kankri heard as other inmates were released from their cells, along with the usual irritated grumbling of the guards as they led the lowbloods down the corridors of this particular cell-block. It was a common thing to hear, routine and nothing more and Kankri was accustomed of hearing the guards and the lowbloods at particular times of day. At times, they were peaceful; lowbloods going accordingly to where they were taken and without any complaint. Other times, fights would ensue, usually going no further than arguments before they were either shoved inside their cell again or finally forced to follow along to where they’d been wanted.

  
Time continued to tick by on the clock, the dreaded time growing nearer and nearer as Kankri stared up at it. He’d thought time would go by slower if he watched the clock, but in those moments, it felt as if the clock were doubling in speed as he watched, thickening the lump in his stomach. He wasn’t sure how he was going to do this, but he was determined to figure out some way to keep the last scraps of sanity left to his thinkpan.

  
Footsteps finally sounded again down the corridors outside the main cells and Kankri’s eyes swung to the metal door at one side of the small room, scarlet orbs wide with fright. He forced himself to breath, but it came out more rapid than usual and it was all he could do to not just pass out there on the spot. He didn’t want this, desperately didn’t want this. On second thought, he began to think it may be better if he had passed out, after all, he’d be rushed then to the health block instead of the nutrition block. Though, on further thought of that plan, he realized the flaws in it. Her Imperial Condescension would likely just reschedule the meal for the next available meal period, which in theory was probably one of the next ones after that one in particular. It was an inevitable situation and regardless of how much it scared him and how much he didn’t want to, he knew he would have to.

  
It didn’t take long before the footsteps finally neared his door and three loud bangs clanged against the metal of the door, reverberating and echoing in the room within, hurting Kankri’s ears at the intensity of such a volume. Not that guards particularly cared about how loud their bangs were on the doors anyway, for if they had, they wouldn’t have done it. He supposed that was the thing about high bloods though, they just didn’t care for the lowbloods, even if they were supposed to be ‘taking care’ of them in the form of culling, which Kankri carefully referred to as ‘coddling’.

  
“Are you decent?” asked the Highblood guard through the door then. Ironically enough, at least they got that amount of freedom, given time enough to dress if for some reason they weren’t, but that was only a drop of water in contrast to the ocean that Kankri was hoping for.

  
“Yes, I am…” Kankri responded back and within the second that he’d replied, the door opened wide, revealing a normal looking blue blood, standing straight backed and proud, even if the look in his eyes spoke a different story altogether.

  
The blue blood grunted his response and walked over to Kankri, walking him out of the room and following closely behind, guiding him from the cell and down the corridors. Faintly a few doors down the line, Kankri heard whispering coming from further down the corridor from one of the far cells, followed by several more whispers from a few of the surrounding cells. Vaguely, Kankri wondered the reason why trolls were still in those cells, given it was a meal period, but he quickly swept that aside as the rounded a corner and the whispers itself drifted off and out of his hearing.

  
Once past the corner, the rest of the walk was relatively silent, filled with little more than the sounds of their shoes on the floor beneath them and the slow and relatively calm in and outtake of air from the guard. The trip itself, along with the silence seemed to drag on forever, growing more and more uncomfortable each passing second. But eventually, there Kankri was standing in front of those massive doors that had at some point recently been painted a Tyrian pink with gold trim.

  
Gnawing on his lip, he felt the subtle nudge to his back and he went to grab the handle of the door, sliding it open slowly, the heavy wooden door taking a great deal of effort for someone like Kankri. He managed and slipped through the opening, only for the guard to pull the door shut behind him with a thud. Kankri jumped at the suddenness of it, feeling even more trapped than he had previously, which he hadn’t actually thought was possible.

  
When finally he calmed down, he lifted his gaze from the marble floor beneath them and glanced up, only to see a troll waiting for him. Her Imperial Condescension herself sat a grand table, big enough for elegance, but small enough where Kankri would still be able to see the yellow parts of her eyes across the distance. Things remained still for several seconds, Kankri simply watching and staring at the Empress who sat before him, long black hair going down to reach the floor and bright Fuchsia spheres looking at him through pink colored goggles, along with a subtle gold tiara laying neatly on her forehead, resting somewhere between her goggles and her massively high horns, that must have reached over a foot above the top of her skull.

  
Giggling, the Empress finally smiled. It would have been a nice smile, had it not been for the razor sharp teeth that were revealed from the parting of the two sweet black lips. “W) (ale,” she started, her voice soft and sweet. “Aren’t you going to come and sit wit) ( me?”

  
Kankri blinked, breaking himself out of his stupor, continuing to bite the inside of his lip, but nonetheless walked over and took the seat opposite. Once seated, he set his hands on the table before him, and glanced away from the troll across from him. He wasn’t sure what to say or what to do, but that was no surprise. What do you say to a person who locks you up? What do you say to a ruler of your whole species? The answer… he wasn’t sure.

  
“Are you ) (ungry?” she asked him then, propping her chin up by her fist, the small movement of her arms creating the slightest clanking of her bracelets against each other.  
Of course Kankri was hungry, but with the trepidation he was feeling, there was little chance that he was going to eat much of anything he was offered. Though he also knew he should try at least a bit, lest he want to get some unwanted concern from the Condesce. He nodded his head in response and reached forward and took a bit of food and setting it on his nutrition platter. It took a while however to actually start nibbling on some of the food, regardless of the grumbling in his stomach.  
He knew all the while as he did manage to get a few bites of what he’d taken down, that the Condesce was watching.

  
“) (ow does everyfin taste?”

  
“Fine,” He responded, his voice quieter than a squeak beast.

  
The rest of the meal went about rather slowly and quietly. Every once in a while, the Empress would ask a question and Kankri would quietly answer it, but otherwise little more happened. At the end of the meal, when Kankri was done with all he could stomach at the current moment, the Empress called in one of the guards and he was led out of the room. Before the doors could shut though, she could hear the Empress’ voice from within speak, “Sea you again soon…” She said, followed by a giggle and there was just something about the tone she used, that set Kankri even more uneasy than before. While the doors shut with a dull clip and a whoosh of air, Kankri stared at it, dreading his next meal with Her Condescension.


End file.
